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Introduction: Poor discharge planning can lead to poor patient outcomes, and delayed discharge planning can cause patients to remain in hospitals longer than necessary, taking up valuable inpatient beds when they could be more easily and comfortably cared for at home. This study assessed nurses’ awareness and practice of discharge planning among nurses in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Design: This descriptive study was conducted among the participants of the Mandatory Continuous Professional Development Program, Oyo State. They were selected purposefully because they work at various levels of healthcare. Out of the 118 enrollees in the training, 95 volunteered to participate in the survey. Permission to conduct the study was sought from the program organizers, and individual consent was obtained following a detailed explanation of the purpose of the study. A 16-item self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. The collected data were analysed using SPSS version 21.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 40.2–14.1 years. More than half (51.6%) of the participants claimed to have discharge planning policies, but many (70.5%) could not really describe what they practice in their various institutions regarding discharge planning. It is also evident that there are no discharge planning tools in use in their settings (68%), though some (31.6%) exhibited fair knowledge of the pre-discharge interventions. Meanwhile, many of them indicated that there would be a need to train nurses on the discharge planning process for quality care.

Conclusion: It is imperative that an appropriate policy on discharge planning practice be instituted, this will go a long way toward achieving quality healthcare outcomes, smooth patients’ transitions, and patient-centred care. Training programs for stakeholders in patient care should also be sponsored and supported to ensure adequate practice of discharge planning at all levels of healthcare delivery.